MetLife has added credit monitoring services to its group legal services employee benefit plan as concerns of identity theft grow.
Employers with 1,000 or more employees who use MetLaw will have access to the new credit monitoring service, which is provided by CyberScout, an identity theft services provider. The benefit will scour the internet and major credit bureaus to help uncover and minimize fraud in the early stages and provide members with a dashboard through which they can monitor their credit scores.
“The number of employers offering legal services plans has doubled in the past 10 years, and the popularity of this benefit continues to grow,” says Randy Stram, senior vice president of national accounts in MetLife’s Group Benefits business. “We’ve added the new credit monitoring service to further support employers as they work to meet employees’ need for resources that protect against identity theft.”
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If identity theft is uncovered, fraud specialists work to restore the member’s identity. Participants who experience an identity theft incident also can be reimbursed up to $1 million for reasonable and necessary expenses related to the incident, such as lost wages and unauthorized electronic fund transfers, according to the company.
MetLife’s new offering comes as more employers add identity theft protection to their benefits plans.
A 2016 voluntary benefits survey by Willis Towers Watson found that the number of employers offering identity theft protection could double in the next year, from 35% in 2015 to nearly 70% by 2018.
Companies such as LifeLock, an identity theft protection business itself, recently added credit monitoring services to their benefits packages, and universities, hospitals and retailers have done the same following major data breaches.
